After Two Years of Lockdown: Why Life Satisfaction Trajectories Matter for LGBTQ+ Student Depression

 

Article information

Cleofas, J. V., & Alibudbud, R. C. (2023). Emerging from a two-year-long quarantine: A retrospective study on life satisfaction trajectory and depression among young LGBTQ+ students in the Philippine. SAGE Open Nursing, 9, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/23779608231158980 

What this study is about

COVID-19 lockdowns didn’t affect everyone equally. For LGBTQ+ young people—who often face stigma, discrimination, and social stress even in “normal” times—the pandemic could intensify mental health risks. But there’s also a twist: when everyone is confined, exposure to some everyday stressors (e.g., public discrimination) can shift in unpredictable ways. 

This study asks: How did life satisfaction change across the two-year community quarantine in the Philippines (2020–2022), and how is that change linked to depression after restrictions eased? Instead of measuring life satisfaction only once, the authors looked at life satisfaction trajectory—how it moved over time—and tested whether that pattern is associated with post-quarantine depression.

Why this matters

Most COVID mental health research focuses on symptoms at one time point. But people experience crises as stories over time—some recover, some plateau, some decline. Tracking a trajectory helps us see who might need support during recovery, not only during the height of the crisis.

For LGBTQ+ students, this matters even more because mental health is shaped by:

• structural and interpersonal stigma (minority stress),
• economic security and access to services,
• the safety or danger of school and community environments,
• and whether life feels like it is getting better—or stuck. 

What the researchers did

• Participants: 384 LGBTQ+ young students (18–24) in areas that experienced the Philippines’ prolonged quarantine conditions. 
• Design: A retrospective repeated-measures approach. Participants were surveyed in 2022 and asked to recalltheir life satisfaction in 2020, 2021, and 2022 (three time points).
• Life satisfaction measure: A single-item 0–10 question used in prior research (asked separately for each year).
• Depression indicator: The Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS), categorized into probable depression vs not, using established cutoffs (lower wellbeing range used as a proxy for probable depression).
• Analysis:
  1. Logistic regression to see which sociodemographic factors predict depression, and
  2. Repeated-measures ANOVA to examine how life satisfaction changed over time and how that change differed between those with vs without depression.

What they found

1) About one in four had probable depression

Using the study’s measure, 26.56% of respondents were categorized as having probable depression after quarantine.

2) Life satisfaction generally increased from 2020 to 2022

Across the whole sample, life satisfaction showed an upward trend from the start of the pandemic to 2022 (when restrictions were lifted).

3) Income mattered: lower-income students were at higher risk

Household income was the clearest sociodemographic predictor. Students from high-income households had lower oddsof depression compared with low- to middle-income students.
In plain terms: economic security appears protective, while financial strain increases vulnerability.

4) The key insight: it’s not just your life satisfaction level—it’s your trajectory

The most important finding is about divergence over time:

• In 2020, life satisfaction looked relatively similar between those who later showed depression vs those who didn’t.
• By 2021 and 2022, the groups split: students with no depression showed more pronounced improvements in life satisfaction, while the depression group improved less.

This is shown visually in Figure 1 (page 6): both groups rise, but the “no depression/optimal wellbeing” line rises faster and ends much higher in 2022 than the “with depression” line.

So the story is not simply “lockdown harmed everyone equally.” It’s: those who experienced a flatter or weaker recovery in life satisfaction were more likely to be depressed afterward.

How the authors interpret this

The paper draws on two ideas:

• Minority stress model: LGBTQ+ mental health disparities come from both distal stressors (discrimination) and proximal stressors (internalized stigma). 
• Diathesis-stress model: prolonged stress plus vulnerabilities increases depression risk; the Philippines’ extended lockdown context is treated as a high-stress macro-environment. 

They also make an interesting point: quarantine might reduce exposure to some minority stressors (less public interaction), which could partially explain why this study’s depression prevalence is lower than some prior estimates. But they stress that this needs more research.

Limitations

• Life satisfaction was measured retrospectively, so recall bias is possible.
• Convenience sampling limits generalizability.
• The study shows association, not definitive causation.

Bottom line

This study suggests a practical takeaway: post-crisis mental health is linked to whether life feels like it is improving over time. For LGBTQ+ students, recovery support shouldn’t end when restrictions lift—because mental health risks can persist or become clearer in the re-entry phase, especially for those with fewer resources.

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Policy/practice recommendations

Grounded in the paper’s implications section:

1. Strengthen LGBTQ+ affirming school environments

• Implement SOGIE awareness and training across school stakeholders and establish safe spaces/supportive environments on campus.

2. Prioritize lower-income LGBTQ+ students

• Offer subsidized/free mental health consultations, connect students to scholarships/stipends, and reduce barriers to basic needs support.

3. Monitor “life satisfaction” as a recovery indicator

• Beyond symptom screening, track students’ quality of life and living conditions over time—especially during transitions back to in-person life.

4. Expand post-quarantine mental health services

• As mobility restrictions lift, plan for shifting social stress exposures; include LGBTQ-inclusive services and ongoing monitoring post-lockdown.

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Glossary of key terms

• Life satisfaction — A person’s overall evaluation of their life quality; here measured yearly from 0 (completely dissatisfied) to 10 (completely satisfied).
• Life satisfaction trajectory — The pattern of life satisfaction change over time (2020 → 2021 → 2022), rather than a single score.
• Probable depression — In this study, a classification based on low mental wellbeing scores on SWEMWBS using established cutoffs.
• SWEMWBS — Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale; a 7-item scale capturing positive mental wellbeing over the past two weeks.
• Minority stress model — A framework explaining LGBTQ+ mental health disparities as shaped by discrimination-related stressors (distal and proximal). 
• Diathesis-stress model — A model suggesting that stress exposure interacts with vulnerabilities to increase risk of mental health problems. 
• Retrospective repeated-measures design — A design that collects present outcomes and asks participants to recall past states at multiple time points.
• Group-by-time interaction — A statistical result showing that two groups changed differently over time (here: depression vs no depression life satisfaction trends).